he wind will take
it away from you altogether. But I'm pretty certain that it is the
barque; and if so I'll stick to her as long as this schooner will hang
together."

"Do you think that she has seen us yet?" I asked.

"Yes, I fancy so," answered Ryan. "She appears to me to be edging away
a trifle, so as to pass us to starboard, giving us as wide a berth as
possible. But even although she may have seen us, I do not believe that
we are recognised, as yet; indeed, how should we be? At this distance,
and end-on as we are, with no canvas set and our topmasts struck, we
must look like little more than a dot on the water."

This was quite true, and I fully believed, with Ryan, that we had _not_
been recognised, for although our companion had indeed manifested signs
of an inclination to edge away from us, the tendency was only to a
sufficient extent to insure her passing us in safety. Had she suspected
us of being an enemy, it would not have been positively dangerous for
her to have altered her course fully a point, although, blowing as it
then did, it would have been exceedingly imprudent to have attempted
more than that.

In about half-an-hour after I had joined Ryan the strange craft overtook
us; but while she was yet some half-a-mile astern of us we had made her
out to be a barque of just about the same size as the one that we had
been hunting for; and when she came up abreast of us at a distance of
not more than a quarter of a mile, we saw that her main-topmast had gone
just at the cap, and her people were still busy with the wreck of it; a
pretty tough job they seemed to be having with it, too. That she was
much more strongly-manned than is usually the case with a merchantman of
her size was also evident, for we could see that while one gang was at
work clearing away the wreck, another was busy securing the fore-topmast
by getting up preventer-backstays, and so on. How they managed to work
aloft at all in such terrific weather passed my comprehension; but there
they were, at least _trying_ to do something. And, as Ryan remarked, it
showed conclusively what a resolute set of fellows they were on board
her, and afforded us a clue as to the sort of resistance we were likely
to meet with should it ever come to a game of fisticuffs between them
and ourselves.

Having once overtaken us she seemed to very quickly pass ahead, and when
she was once more about two miles distant, Ryan gave the order to set
the storm